---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 915"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "915"
heading: "Invalid agreements"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/915"
units:
  - "Chapter 18 — Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation"
---

# §915. Invalid agreements

- (a) No agreement by an [employee](/usc/33/902.md?p=3) to pay any portion of premium paid by his [employer](/usc/33/902.md?p=4) to a [carrier](/usc/33/902.md?p=5) or to contribute to a benefit fund or department maintained by such [employer](/usc/33/902.md?p=4) for the purpose of providing [compensation](/usc/33/902.md?p=12) or medical services and supplies as required by this chapter shall be valid, and any [employer](/usc/33/902.md?p=4) who makes a deduction for such purpose from the pay of any [employee](/usc/33/902.md?p=3) entitled to the benefits of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.
- (b) No agreement by an [employee](/usc/33/902.md?p=3) to waive his right to [compensation](/usc/33/902.md?p=12) under this chapter shall be valid.

## Source credit

(Mar. 4, 1927, ch. 509, § 15, 44 Stat. 1434.)